Money pours for the football players too

Immediately after Abhinav Bindra had given India reasons to celebrate, its soccer players, too, struck gold. And as it was in the case of Bindra, money simply poured in, for the India football team after they won the AFC Challenge Cup.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) and sports broadcaster, ESPN, rewarded the winners with Rs 15 lakh each. The cash award was shared by 23 players, head coach and six support staff.
Cash incentives are fast becoming an effective tool to promote sports in India. The sector is now almost totally in the hands of private sector. Yet, the government matters.
The Sports Ministry is also expected to announce incentives for the players and the support staff. Sports Minister, M.S. Gill, is scheduled to meets captain Baichung Bhutia and yesterday's hat-trick man Sunil Chhetri, soon.

More money to come
AIFF President Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi personally met the players this morning and congratulated them for the "historic win." This took the country to 2011 Asian Cup after 24 years. Dasmunshi also presented each of the team members, a cheque of Rs 50,000.
Head coach Bob Houghton was handed a Rs 1 lakh cheque. The six other support staff (two assistant coaches, one goalkeeper coach, team manager, a doctor and a physio) were also given Rs 50,000 each. This brought the total sum to Rs 15.5 lakh.
India defeated defending champions Tajikistan by a convincing 4-1 margin to win their first major title since the Nehru Cup win in August last year.

Tendulkar touches his bottom in ranking

Sachin Tendulkar has dropped to his lowest level in 15 years in the ICC rankings for Test batsmen. He just has finished a disappointing series against Sri Lanka which concluded in Colombo on Monday.
Tendulkar, who started the series in the 13th position, finished in 23rd place after scoring 95 runs at an average of 15.83.
It is his lowest ranking since late 1992 after spending over 15 years in the top 20 apart from a very brief spell at the end of 2006.

Another record
Tendulkar is just 76 runs short of becoming the leading run-getter in Test cricket history. His drop is the only bad news for India batting as others have made good upward progress.
Virender Sehwag has become the highest-ranked Indian batsman after returning to the top 10 for the first time since March 2006.

Others improve
Sehwag, who scored an impressive 344 runs in the series, has lifted one place to 10th with Pakistan's Younus Khan firmly within his sights.
VVS Laxman, who scored 25 and 61 not out in the series decider, has climbed three places to 15th position while Rahul Dravid shares 16th place with England’s Alastair Cook. Dravid improves his position by two places after scores of 10 and 68 while Cook jumps four places following his contribution of 39 and 67 in The Oval Test.
Saurav Ganguly has improved his ranking by one place and now sits in 25th position while opener Gautam Gambhir, who was the second leading run-getter for his side with 310 runs, is in 37th place after jumping 12 places.

Some parts of Olympic spectacle were faked

Some parts of the spectacular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on Friday were faked. As the ceremony got under way, viewers watching at home and even on giant screens inside the National Stadium were treated with, in parts, computer graphics.
The fireworks were there for real, outside the stadium. But those responsible for filming the extravaganza decided in advance that it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprints from the air. So they resorted to trick photography.

Manipur government seeks CBI probe into Monika Devi case

The Manipur Government has formally requested the Centre on Monday for a CBI probe into the Monika Devi case. The "manipulative game" played by the bureaucratic beasts at IOA and Sports Authority of India (SAI) effectively kept the weightlifter Monika Devi out of the Beijing Olympics.
The State chief secretary on behalf of the government wrote a letter to the Union Secretary Satyananda Mishra, Ministry of Personnel and Public Grievances, seeking a CBI probe into Monika's doping charges. A copy of the letter has also been sent to the CBI director, Ashwani Kumar.
Manipur Chief Minister, O Ibobi Singh, is camping in New Delhi on the issue. He also wrote a letter to the Prime Minister seeking the CBI inquiry on a priority basis.
The Union Government is yet to react on the probe. However, Monika was cleared of doping charges only on the intervention of the PMO.

Money pours on Bindra

L N Mittal- Rs 1.5 crore
Punjab- Rs 1 crore
Haryana- Rs 25 lakh
Haryana Olympic Association- Rs 1 crore
Sports Ministry- Rs 30 lakh
Delhi Municipal Corp.- Rs 5 lakh
Steel Ministry- Rs 15 lakh
Net-ball Association- Rs 2. lakh
Karnataka- Rs 10 lakh
Chhattisgarh- Rs 1 lakh
Chandigarh- Rs 5 lakh
Tamil Nadu- Rs 5 lakh
Bihar- Rs 11 lakh
Madhya Pradesh- Rs 5 lakh.
Maharastra- Rs 10 lakh
Indian Railways- Lifetime AC First class pass for two

Congrates! Abhinav

Abhinav Bindra has become the first ever Indian sportsperson to win Gold in individual events. It was only in 1980 that India won Gold through hockey team.
This time the hockey team even could not qualify for the Olympics.

Monika Devi cleared of charges. Another victim of bureaucratic beasts

The Indian bureaucratic beasts have done it again. First, they declared Indian weightlifting hopeful, Monika Devi as having failed the dope test. No steroid or anything was named. The weightlifter was simply held back only hours before she was to board the flight to the Olympics.
Now, Monika Devi has been cleared of dope charges. But the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said on Saturday that it was too late for her to take part in the Beijing Olympics. Another promising talent has, thus, been sacrificed at the altar of bureaucratic cannibalism.
"It is too late for Monika to come to Beijing now and take part in the Olympic Games. We have closed the entry process." IOA Secretary General Randhir Singh said.